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This chapter traces the history of Jewish engagement with ancient science by contextualizing the literature related to Enoch. It first considers a working definition of “science” and the earlier history of science before assessing evidence of scientific interest among Jews in late antiquity, including the Second Temple period and the period covered by the Achaemenid Empire. In particular, it examines surviving concentrations of Jewish science from the Second Temple period in Enochic literature. It then links a distinct Jewish tradition to forerunners of Greek science in other parts of the Mediterranean shore, citing the Ionian philosophers of nature as a prime example. It also highlights the distinction between the scientific Enoch tradition and the Mosaic tradition, the latter of which was less interested in the natural sciences. Finally, it examines the Jewish narrative on the history of knowledge, with particular emphasis on the myth of the Watchers.

This chapter examines the intellectual climate that gave rise to a creative scientific environment in the Dead Sea Scrolls community called Yahad. It first considers the antecedents of the Yahad's scientific outlook within larger movements of Judaism of the Hellenistic period, including the Enochic literature and the apocalyptic-sapiential Aramaic texts from a cave. It then outlines some of the prerequisites for the development of science as they are represented in the early Jewish tradition, along with the myths about the birth of knowledge found in the apocalyptic literature and in the literature of the Yahad. It also presents a case study from the integration of astrological and astronomical themes in Yahad literature and concludes with a discussion of the epistemological infrastructure that triggered the commitment of the Yahad to science.

This chapter examines the scientific teaching and key scientific concepts of the Astronomical Book of Enoch. In particular, it considers whether the material in the Astronomical Book should be viewed as ancient science. It also discusses broader issues in connection with ancient Jewish science, including the Astronomical Book. The chapter first traces the history of transmission of Enochic wisdom before turning to Enoch's astronomical teaching in the Aramaic and Ethiopic traditions. It then considers whether the concept of a regular, legalized cosmos as promoted in most of the Astronomical Book is compatible with the threat posed by the apocalypse to this order, as well as evidential grammar in early Enochic literature.